what is the 'whatis' command?


 
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# 8  
Old 10-25-2001
Quote:
Originally posted by sskb
I only got error when I tried them. Is that because of Installation problem?
You need to run "catman -w" to build the database to get -f and -k to work.
# 9  
Old 10-25-2001
sorry again, when i gave

catman -w

I got

stdin: not in compressed format
stdin: not in compressed format
/usr/lbin/mkwhatis[108]: /usr/share/lib/whatis: Cannot create the specified file.
chmod: can't access /usr/share/lib/whatis

Is there anything I can do ?Smilie
sskb
# 10  
Old 10-25-2001
First, just ignore the "not-compressed" messages. They come from uncompress. Somehow HP has a couple of man pages that will not compress...I'm tempted to track them down just to see how to write a non-compressable man page.

Those last two messages probably means that you were not running as root. If you were running as root, then somehow /usr/share/lib was not writable by root.
# 11  
Old 10-25-2001
I am not the root, just an ordinary user. Should I need to inform the superuser regarding this?
sskb
# 12  
Old 10-26-2001
Yes, you should inform the superuser and let him know. It is a very usefull utility.
 
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